Christopher Sholes, Danville and Mooresburg, Montour County

Well, my friends, this is it! Today's quest is the final one for 2023. Next week I'll be doing my annual wrap-up and looking at all the weird and wonderful things I've experienced through this blog over the past year (there have been a lot!) and also examining the stats to see which posts have resonated with my readers the most, or at least went the most viral on social media. I'm continually befuddled to see which posts are getting hits, and I wish Blogger had a way to let me know how people are finding them, but it's exciting nevertheless.

Meanwhile, today's quest is a double whammy in Montour County. (Special hello to Shane Kiefer, at the Columbia-Montour Visitors Center - I promised I'd get one for you before the year was out! Thanks for your ongoing support.) Quite literally, the work I'm doing as I write this post would not be possible without the subject of today's post, and he's so important that he has two markers.

Philo T. Farnsworth, Glenside, Montgomery County

This week's quest is rather a fun one, with a marker photo courtesy of my friend and former coworker Sheila. (She said she saw it and thought of me - thank you!) Of course, as I've said many times in the past, we in Pennsylvania do like our firsts and oldests. We're the home of America's first zoo and the world's oldest roller coaster, to name but two. We're also, up in Schuylkill County, the birthplace of cable television, which I'll be talking about in a future post. But today, I'm going to tell you about Pennsylvania's role in the creation of electronic television, which came before cable.

Anna Wagner Keichline, Bellefonte, Centre County

And this is the last of the 'county firsts' for August! Kevin and I were both absolutely charmed by the little community of Bellefonte, which we visited on our way home from his birthday trip last month; it's picturesque and out of the way, nestled between the mountains of Centre County. We were actually a little sorry that we couldn't stay longer. It seemed like every turn we took brought us to another beautiful building, particularly the Centre County Courthouse, and there were a surprising number of historical markers to be found.

I decided to go with this one for the first Centre County marker because the woman it celebrates is quite extraordinary, and I was curious to learn more about her.

Samuel Phillippe, Easton, Northampton County

Just like my last post contained an admission that I'm not exactly a devotee of football, this one contains an admission that I'm also not into fishing. Unless it's a fishing minigame in one of my video game adventures, you're not likely to find me holding a rod and reel.

Some of my friends went to Easton last year for their annual Garlic Fest. My best friend Andrea was of the party, and she texted me photos of a couple of markers from near the festival, one of which is today's subject. I remember getting this one and thinking it was something of a strange topic to honor on a historical marker - but as I've repeatedly had cause to discover, I am not as smart as I like to think I am.